Stand Proud You Know Black History Today, January 21, In Black History • January 21, 1913 Fannie Jackson Coppin, educator and journalist, died. Coppin was born enslaved October 15, 1837 in Washington, D.C. She gained her freedom at 12 when her aunt, who worked for $6 per month and saved $125, was able to purchase Coppin’s freedom. Coppin enrolled at Oberlin College in 1860 and was the first African American student to be appointed in the college’s preparatory department. While attending Oberlin, she established an evening school for previously enslaved Black people. Coppin earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1865 and began to teach at the Institute for Colored Youth (now Cheyney University). Coppin became principal of the institute in 1869, the first African American woman to receive that title. She served in that position until 1906. In addition to teaching, Coppin founded homes for working and poor women and wrote an influential column in the local newspapers that defended the rights of women and Black people. Coppin and her husband went to South Africa in 1902 and founded the Bethel Institute, a missionary school that emphasized self-help programs. Her book “Reminiscences of School Life, and Hints on Teaching” was published shortly after her death. In 1926, a teacher training school was named the Fannie Jackson Coppin Normal School in her honor. That school is now Coppin State University. Coppin’s name is enshrined in the Ring of Genealogy at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, Michigan. • January 21, 1917 Leonard Roy Harmon, the first African American to have a navy ship named in his honor, was born In Cuero, Texas. Harmon enlisted in the United States Navy in June, 1939 and in October of that year was assigned to the USS San Francisco. By 1942, he had advanced to mess attendant first class. On November 12, 1942, the Japanese began the battle of Guadalcanel by crashing a plane into the USS San Francisco, killing or injuring 50 men. The next day they raked the USS San Francisco with gunfire, killing nearly every officer on the bridge. Disregarding his own safety, Harmon helped to evacuate the wounded. He was killed while shielding a wounded shipmate with his own body. For “extraordinary heroism,” he was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, the highest medal awarded by the U. S. Navy, by Secretary of the Navy William Frank Knox March 4, 1943. On July 25, 1943, the USS Harmon, a destroyer escort named in his honor, was launched. The destroyer was scrapped in 1967. The bachelor enlisted quarters at the U. S. Naval Air Station in North Island, California was named Harmon Hall in 1975. • January 21, 1922 Lincoln MacCauley Alexander, Canada’s first Black Member of Parliament, was born in Toronto, Canada. After serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II, Alexander graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1953. He was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 1968, the first Black Member of Parliament. He held the seat for four terms before serving as an observer to the United Nations in 1976. Alexander was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Ontario in 1985, the first Black person to serve in a vice-regal position in Canada. During his term, he concentrated on bringing attention to education and youth issues. After stepping down from that office, Alexander was awarded the Order of Ontario and made a Companion of the Order of Canada. From 1991 to 2007, he served as chancellor of the University of Guelph and was named chair of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation in 2000. His autobiography, “Go to School, You’re a Little Black Boy: The Honourable Lincoln M. Alexander: A Memoir,” was published in 2006. Alexander died October 19, 2012. • January 21, 1932 John Chaney, hall of fame college basketball coach, was born in Jacksonville, Florida. Chaney played basketball for Bethune-Cookman College where he was a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics All-American and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1955. After playing in the Eastern Professional Basketball League, Chaney’s first collegiate coaching position was at Cheyney State University in 1972 where he won the Division II national championship in 1978 and was named the Division II National Coach of the Year. He took the head coaching position at Temple University in 1982 and over the next 24 years took them to the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament 17 times and was named the National Coach of the Year in 1988. He also was the first African American coach to win 700 games over his career. Chaney was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001 and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006, the same year he retired from coaching with 741 wins. Chaney was known for the values that he instilled in his players and two books related to that are “Winning is an Attitude: A Season in the Life of John Chaney and the Temple Owls” (1991) and “Chaney: Playing for a Legend” (2006). • January 21, 1948 Gertrude E. H. Bustill Mossell, educator, journalist and author, died. Mossell was born July 3, 1855 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After graduating from the Institute for Colored Youth (now Cheyney University), she taught for seven years in the public school systems of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. She also contributed columns related to African American women to the African American newspapers in Philadelphia. Mossell was woman’s editor for the New York Age from 1885 to 1889 and held the same position for the Indianapolis World from 1891 to 1892. Mossell encouraged the growth of Black newspapers and worked to attract Black women to journalism. She published “The Work of the Afro-American Woman” in 1894, a collection of essays and poems that recognized the achievements of Black women in a number of fields. She also published a children’s book, “Little Dansie’s One Day at Sabbath School” in 1902. Mossell also served as director of the charity fund for the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School and raised more than $30,000 in 1895. She also organized the Philadelphia branch of the National Afro-American Council. • January 21, 1951 Eric Himpton Holder, Jr., the first African American Attorney General of the United States, was born in The Bronx, New York. Holder earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in American history from Columbia College in 1973 and his Juris Doctor degree from Columbia Law School in 1976. After graduating from law school, he joined the U. S. Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section and worked there until 1988. That year, President Ronald W. Reagan appointed Holder a Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Holder stepped down from the bench in 1993 to accept an appointment as U. S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, the first Black U. S. attorney in that office. He was promoted to deputy attorney general in 1997 and served until 2001. From 2001 to 2007, Holder worked in private practice, representing clients such as Merck and the National Football League. On February 3, 2009, he assumed the office of United States Attorney General. During his tenure, Holder has been a staunch defender of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the president’s legal right to prosecute the War on Terror. He announced his plans to step down from the position in 2014. Holder received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Boston University in 2010. Holder was included on Time magazine’s 2014 list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. • January 21, 1963 Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon, hall of fame basketball player, was born in Lagos, Nigeria. Olajuwon came to the United States to play basketball for the University of Houston where he had a standout career, including winning the 1983 National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament Player of the Year Award. He was selected by the Houston Rockets in the 1984 National Basketball Association Draft and over his 18 season professional career led them to two NBA championships. He also was a 12-time All-Star, 2-time Defensive Player of the Year, and the 1994 NBA Most Valuable Player. He retired with the most blocked shots in NBA history. Olajuwon also won a Gold medal as a member of the U. S. men’s basketball team at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games. That same year, he was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. Olajuwon co-authored his autobiography, “Living the Dream: My Life and Basketball” that same year. He retired from basketball in 2002 as the NBA’s all-time leader in blocked shots and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008. After retiring, Olajuwon has had great success in the Houston real estate market with estimated profits exceeding $100 million. • January 21, 1975 Jason Moran, jazz pianist and band leader, was born in Houston, Texas. Moran began playing the piano at six but did not fall in love with the instrument until he was 13 when he switched from classical music to jazz. His debut recording as a band leader was “Soundtrack to Human Motion” in 1999. Subsequent recordings include “Facing Left” (2000), “Same Mother” (2005), “Ten” (2010), and “All Rise: A Joyful Elegy for Fats Waller” (2014). The Down Beat critic’s poll voted him Rising Star Jazz Artist, Rising Star Pianist, and Rising Star Composer in 2003, 2004 and 2005, respectively. Also, Moran was named Playboy magazine’s first Jazz Artist of the Year in 2005. He received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Award in 2010. Moran serves on the faculties of the New England Conservatory of Music and the Manhattan School of Music and is the artistic director for jazz at the Kennedy Center. • January 21, 1984 Jack Leroy “Jackie” Wilson, hall of fame singer and performer known as “Mr. Excitement,” died. Wilson was born June 9, 1934 in Detroit, Michigan. He gained early fame as a member of The Dominoes. Wilson began his solo career in 1957 with the release of “Reet Petite” and over the next 15 years recorded more than 50 hit singles, including “To Be Loved” (1957), “You Better Know It” (1959), “A Woman, A Lover, A Friend” (1960), “Stop Doggin’ Around” (1960), “Baby Workout” (1963), and “Higher and Higher” (1969). Wilson suffered a massive heart attack in 1975 that left him in a vegetative state for the remainder of his life. Wilson was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and received the Rhythm and Blues Foundation Legacy Tribute Award in 2003. Rolling Stone magazine named him one of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time in 2004. • January 21, 1992 Champion Jack Dupree, hall of fame blues singer and pianist, died. Dupree was born William Thomas Dupree July 23, 1909 in New Orleans, Louisiana. At two, his parents died and he was sent to the New Orleans Home for Colored Waif where he was raised. Dupree taught himself to play the piano and began playing in local bars. By 1935, he was boxing professionally. He fought about 107 bouts and earned the name Champion Jack which he used for the rest of his life. Dupree made his recording debut in 1940 with a series of singles, including “Warehouse Man Blues” and “Gamblin’ Man Blues.” His recording career was interrupted by service in the United States Navy, including two years as a Japanese prisoner of war. After the war, Dupree recorded prolifically. Concerned with the racism in the U. S., he moved to Europe in 1960 where he continued to record. Albums by Dupree include “Blues from the Gutter” (1958), “Champion of the Blues” (1963), “Back Home in New Orleans” (1990), and “One Last Time” (1993). Dupree was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1993. • January 21, 1999 Charles Brown, hall of fame blues singer and pianist, died. Brown was born September 13, 1922 in Texas City, Texas. As a child, he took classical piano lessons. Brown earned his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry with the intention of teaching the subject. He moved to Los Angeles, California during World War II to teach but ended up performing with a group called The Three Blazers. In 1945, they recorded Brown’s composition “Driftin’ Blues” which stayed on the Billboard R&B charts for six months and became a template for a lighter, more relaxed style of blues. Brown went solo in 1948 and released a number of major hits during the early 1950s, including “Get Yourself Another Fool” 1949), “Trouble Blues” (1949), “Black Night” (1951), and “Hard Times” (1951). His “Please Come Home for Christmas” (1960) had sold more than a million copies by 1968. Brown was an inaugural recipient of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer Award in 1989, inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1996, and received the National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Fellowship, the United States highest honor in the folk and traditional arts, from First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton September 23, 1997. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. • January 21, 2001 Roderick Raynor Paige was confirmed as the first African American to serve as United States Secremedia-cache-ak0.pinimg/736x/f3/3d/39/f33d3987b6b88ca6640f583dac670ba3.jpgtary of Education. Paige was born June 17, 1933 in Monticello, Mississippi. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Jackson State University in 1955 and his Master of Arts degree in 1962 and Doctor of Physical Education degree in 1970 from Indiana University. He served in the U. S. Navy from 1955 to 1957. Paige served as head football coach at Jackson State from 1964 to 1968 and served in the same capacity at Texas Southern University from 1971 to 1975. He was the athletic director at Texas Southern from 1971 to 1980 and dean of the College of Education from 1984 to 1994. In that capacity, he established the university’s Center for Excellence in Urban Education. Paige served on the board of the Houston Independent School District from 1989 to 1994 when he was appointed superintendent of schools for the district. Paige served as Secretary of Education until his resignation in 2005. In that position, he was instrumental in developing the No Child Left Behind education law. After resigning, he founded Chartwell Education Group and served as chairman from 2005 to 2009. He currently serves on the board of Universal Technical Institute. Paige wrote “The War Against Hope: How Teachers’ Unions Hurt Children, Hinder Teachers, and Endanger Public Education” in 2007 and co-wrote “The Black-White Achievement Gap: Why Closing It Is the Greatest Civil Rights Issue of Our Time” in 2010. Rod Paige Elementary School in Houston, Texas is named in his honor. • January 21, 2007 Lovie Lee Smith became the first African American National Football League head coach to qualify for the Super Bowl. Smith was born May 8, 1958 in Gladewater, Texas. During his high school football career, he earned All-State honors for three years and led his team to three consecutive state championships between 1973 and 1975. Smith played college football at the University of Tulsa where he was a two-time All-American and graduated in 1980. After graduation, he began his coaching career at the high school level and later moved to the college ranks. Smith began his professional coaching career in 1996. He was hired as head coach of the Chicago Bears in 2004 and won the 2005 Associated Press Coach of the Year Award. Unfortunately, Smith became the first African American head coach to lose a Super Bowl February 4, 2007. Smith was fired by the Bears at the end of 2012. He was hired as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2014. Smith and his wife head the Lovie and MaryAnne Smith Foundation which provides college scholarships to high school students from low socio-economic backgrounds. • January 21, 2013 Myrlie Evers-Williams became the first woman and first layperson to deliver the invocation at a presidential inauguration when she delivered it at the inauguration of President Barack H. Obama. Evers-Williams was born Myrlie Beasley March 17, 1933 in Vicksburg, Mississippi. While attending Alcorn A&M College, she met Medgar Evers and they were married in 1951. Evers was murdered in 1963 because of his civil rights activities. Evers-Williams earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from Pomona College in 1968 and served as director of consumer affairs for Atlantic Richfield Company. She helped found the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971. In 1987, Evers-Williams became the first African American woman to serve as commissioner on the Los Angeles Board of Public Works. She became the first woman to serve as chairperson of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People national board in 1995, a position she held until 1998. That same year, she received the NAACP Spingarn Medal. Evers-Williams has authored two books, “For Us, The Living” (1967) and “Watch Me Fly: What I Learned On the Way to Becoming the Woman I Was Meant to Be” (1999). Evers-Williams founded and currently serves as chairperson of the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Institute whose mission is “to impact future generations in successfully leading and developing positive change through cultivated learning, generating new solutions, and promoting civic engagement.” She is also a distinguished scholar-in-residence at Alcorn State University.(Source:The Wright Museum)
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 17:35:43 +0000
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